UFC 155's Brad Pickett believes win over Wineland has him next in line for title

Brad Pickett probably never would admit to being worried, but the statute of limitations on his nickname was probably creeping up behind him.

But then came a fight against Yves Jabouin in September in front of his home fans in England, and everyone was reminded why the bantamweight Brit goes by “One Punch.”

After some early trading, Pickett (22-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC) landed an uppercut that had Jabouin (16-8 MMA, 3-2 UFC) finished. The shots on the ground were merely academic.

It was Pickett’s first knockout in a little more than four years, and his first under the Zuffa banner. It also earned him a “Knockout of the Night” bonus from one of his biggest fans, UFC President Dana White.

“It really was a great, great feeling,” Pickett told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I’ve always known I hit hard, because I’ve dropped people in a lot of fights. But sometimes they manage to recover quickly, or I hit them hard in the head, but not in the chin. But because people don’t stand with me as much, I end up getting in a wrestling match. So it was nice to be able to finish him with a single punch.”

Pickett’s celebration afterward was equally memorable. It meant a lot to win in England – he hadn’t had his hand raised in his home country since before signing with the WEC in 2009. But especially key was the way he finished.

“You saw my little ‘Gangham Style’ afterward,” he said. “But then, when it sunk in, I was so pumped. I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ It meant a lot to have that sort of finish.”

Getting two straight one-punch knockouts may be a tall order, though, and Pickett knows it.

On Saturday, he takes on former WEC bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland (19-8-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) in the final preliminary-card fight at UFC 155, which takes place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Their fight closes out the FX broadcast to lead into the pay-per-view, which begins at 10 p.m. ET. The Pickett-Wineland fight will begin at roughly 9:30 p.m. ET.

Pickett snapped Jabouin’s three-fight win streak in September. But just like him, Wineland is coming off an impressive one-punch knockout. In June, he stopped Scott Jorgensen at UFC on FX 3 in Florida. And he did it not far from where Pickett trains at American Top Team – almost like it was some kind of a warning shot that they soon would meet, potentially with a lot at stake.

Wineland has been finished just once in the past eight years, a submission loss to Rani Yahya at WEC 40. And he’s never been knocked out. His lone TKO loss was from an in-fight injury.

“He hasn’t been finished in a while, but that doesn’t make a difference,” Pickett said. “I like to think I’m hard to put away, but Renan Barao put me away. Before that, I can’t remember the last time I was put away. Sometimes, Lady Luck’s on your side, and sometimes that’s just the way the fight goes. We’re both going to be trying to (put each other away) from the start.

“It’ll lead to an exciting fight, and if it ends in a knockout, great, and if it ends in 15 minutes, you’ll know it’s been an exciting 15 minutes.”

Pickett believes that despite both fighters being known as standouts in the standup game, their philosophies are different. And that could make a finish for either of them a tall order.

“I like to describe my sort of style as controlled chaos,” Pickett said. “I like coming forward, I’m aggressive, I like throwing hard. He’s more of a counter-puncher and he’s very aggressive once he’s got you hurt. I know what I want to do, and I know what he wants to do. I want to come forward and hit him. He wants me to come forward, miss him and then hit me. But it doesn’t mean he’s not going to try to take me down, or I’m not going to try to take him down.”

If the fight does hit the floor, Pickett has the strength of 10 career submission victories on his side. Half of Wineland’s eight losses over a pro career of nearly 10 years have come by submission.

But Pickett isn’t about to overanalyze Wineland trying to predict how Saturday’s fight will go.

“At the end of the day, my style is about implementing my game plan and me doing my thing,” he said. “That’s what I like to concentrate on a lot more. If you concentrate too much on what they’re going to do, you wind up in a fight letting them do what they’re going to do and you let them get a foothold.”

If Pickett can implement his game plan and leave Las Vegas with a victory, it would give him three straight since a loss in his UFC debut to Barao. And it just might set up a rematch with the Brazilian interim champ, should he get past Michael McDonald in their title fight in February – which happens to be in Pickett’s home city of London at UFC on FUEL TV 7.

Pickett believes whoever has his hand raised Saturday night has the inside track to a fight with the interim champ (titleholder Dominick Cruz will remain sidelined for a good portion of 2013).

“I don’t like to look beyond an opponent, but I think him or me winning this fight, we’re next in line, to be honest,” Pickett said. “If he beats me, then he’s beat two guys in the Top 10 and he’s right up there. If I beat him, that means I’ve won three in a row with a win over a guy in the Top 10, so that puts me there.”

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